#Agenda meeting template how to#
#Agenda meeting template software#

That said, I’ve hosted plenty of agendas on Google Docs, and with suggestions mode and comments, I’ve always been able to have great sessions.

#Agenda meeting template software#

We use etherpads at our annual conference SRCCON as well (and people love it!), but outside of our events, it’s rare for me to see software like etherpad used in the journalism industry. Everyone also has the option to change their color to anything they’d like, and if people choose to add their name to their color, participants can hover over a color and see the name of who authored the comments. Normally, I use etherpad instead of Google Docs for agendas, because it’s part of OpenNews’ culture, and because all participants get assigned unique colors that make live and asynchronous typing really fun to look at - like getting to see a live artifact of how many people are responding at the same time. Some tools visually distinguish participants from one another, which can add a fun atmosphere to written participation And because everyone can write at the same time, but everyone cannot speak at the same time, it allows us to design exercises that help people participate without needing to put anyone “on the spot.” As an added benefit, by reworking the agenda and leaving it open for participation for a week or more, it also allows your live participants to come back and add additional thoughts. Having a way for people to go through the brainstorming process on their own time also gives anyone who prefers to write down their thoughts or process ideas before immediately reacting another chance to participate - and in a way that best suits their working style.ĭuring live meetings, especially when everyone is remote, we’ve found that giving people a way to share their answers through writing instead of speaking means more people will participate. During the live meeting, I also ask participants for feedback on how clearly I’ve explained something, so this is also an opportunity to improve your explanation for async participants.

Creating a new written description of anything I said orally during the live meeting, so that async participants can start on the same page.

Creating new instructions that are clearly written for our asynchronous participants, because in this period, they are taking center stage.

Preserving, but deprioritizing answers and instructions from the live meeting.

Using suggestions mode, I’ve highlighted all the changes I’d make after the live meeting has ended, but before I redistribute the document to people who will be participating on their own time. Meeting Template #2: Remodeled worksheet for participating on your own time Meeting design is its own craft on so many levels, so I’m purposefully not going deep on how I designed each step of this brainstorming process, but instead, focusing on how you can remodel a brainstorm agenda and shared doc into something that is geared toward your asynchronous participants. I annotate in my comments what I would say out loud, and give you some basic examples for how you can fill in the template. In this first template, I share one method by which I’ve run brainstorming meetings, often pulling in techniques I’ve learned from or brainstormed with my Co-Executive Director Erika Owens, or from AORTA, the anti-oppression resource & training alliance. Meeting Template #1: Live meeting agenda and notes But with just a couple of tweaks, I learned that you can also turn that artifact into something that anyone can respond to, iterate from, and build upon.Īfter referencing some of my own live agendas and remodels, I’ve created two documents to demonstrate what a redesign can look like.

Since I was already used to having an interactive agenda, I was also used to meetings always producing a helpful artifact for later reference. But the step I had never tried until recently was redesigning a live meeting agenda into a worksheet that asynchronous participants could go through on their own time.

#Agenda meeting template how to#

Most of the steps I shared about how to design more equitable and accessible meetings I learned from my colleagues at OpenNews, who have been doing this for 10 years.